The exchange’s ability to repay customers is due to the liquidation of certain investments made by FTX and Alameda, including an 8% stake in AI startup Anthropic (sold for $884 million), the dramatic rise in crypto prices since the exchange’s collapse two years ago and clawback efforts by the estate. When current FTX CEO John J. Ray III took over from former CEO and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, the exchange’s coffers were nearly empty, containing only a sliver of the crypto it owed its customers – for example, only 105 bitcoin (worth about $17,000 at the time) remained on the exchange, compared to the nearly 100,000 customers had deposited.
